Red Sparrow

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, Ciaran Hinds, Joely Richardson, Bill Camp, Jeremy Irons, Thekla Reuten
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A ballerina-turned-spy (Jennifer Lawrence) must navigate the deadly world of espionage as she faces danger as she straddles the line between the U.S. and Russia.

Review:

Tim: I suppose there was some potential in the premise of Red Sparrow I'm always down for a good spy thriller and this one certainly gave us a few unique aspects to make it feel different to other similar movies. Unfortunately, the film as a whole felt overly long, overly dense, and ultimately fails to live up to expectations. This is a decent movie for sure, but given the talent of everyone involved, it needed to be better.

I've been lamenting the tendency of movies to become increasingly long. Sometimes a long run time is called for, but oftentimes it's not. There is absolutely no reason for this film to be 2 hours and 20 minutes long. You could easily have cut fifteen minutes. The movie is difficult to sit through due to its length. Now, more often than not, director Francis Lawrence holds our attention. However, there are absolutely scenes that were unnecessary and could have been cut. The story itself is unnecessarily dense. This is something else that I've seen happening in recent years. There's something about telling a mature story that requires the audience to actually think- sure, it demands more work from the audience, but the payoff is worth it. That's not exactly the case here. The movie throws a lot at us and parts of the movie were overly complex. It's not that the story is beyond the audience, it's simply not explained clearly enough. There's a few too many characters and their plots are difficult to follow. The movie has a tendency to bog down under all the weight.

The cast has some serious talent, but I left the film feeling slightly troubled about how effective they were. You have to give Jennifer Lawrence credit- she's obviously all in on this role and it had to have been quite challenging. I was impressed with her performance, but I'm not sure I fully believed her as a Russian. Lawrence is a talented actress, but this role required an extraordinary performance. She doesn't deliver that. So, I feel torn- I'm impressed by how much effort she put in, but slightly disappointed that it wasn't quite enough. I like Joel Edgerton and thought he did a good job here. Compared to Lawrence, his role was pretty straightforward. He's solid, but solid in a fairly simple role. I enjoyed Edgerton, but I didn't feel overly impressed with his performance. Charlotte Ramping was good, but her role was minimal. I liked seeing Mary-Louise Parker and while she brought some energy to the film, her role felt disconnected from the rest of the movie. It was kind of strange how she never seemed to fit with everyone else around her. Jeremy Irons adds a good supporting performance and I always enjoy seeing Ciaran Hinds, although he didn't have anything particularly interesting to do. This is a film that has a cast that looks great on paper, but their total impact is somehow less than anticipated.

I know I'm being somewhat critical of Red Sparrow, and for good reason- the movie should have been better than it was. However, don't think I hated the movie. This is a decent film. It was too long, but there are some legitimately compelling scenes. The Sparrow training scenes were a little unnecessarily graphic, but they certainly got the point across. The movie might bog down in the middle, but it rallies for a surprising, satisfactory conclusion. It's hard not to watch the end of the movie and smile. The path might have been too bumpy, but the destination is pretty cool. The cast had some ups-and-downs, but each member has at least a few moments where they shined. As a whole, Francis Lawrence's film doesn't quite do enough for me to consider it a good movie, but it's a decent film for sure.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: American Hustle, American Assassin